Authentication techniques are typically employed to enable reliable and accurate determination of the correct identity of a person to allow him or her to carry out specific transactions, either for themselves or on behalf of another person. Some of the known authentication techniques are based on use of passwords, encryption, digital signatures, virtual keyboards, biometric scans and the like. Specifically, biometric authentication, as it applies to humans, depends on analysis of a person's measurable biological characteristics such as iris, DNA, face, voice, fingerprint, retina, signature and the like to authenticate the person.
It is often seen that these biometric authentication techniques include the use of heavy and complex algorithms and also involve substantial image processing and hence are resource intensive and costly. Some of these techniques may also involve bringing down the system for huge data processing and related validation. Also, because these techniques need to store the biometric scans for further analysis and matching, these techniques lead to privacy concerns in many countries. It is important therefore to come up with an efficient and cost-effective biometric authentication technique that can accurately authenticate the person as well as overcome the above disadvantages.